I am 54 years old and I am a nerd. (Sounds like an AA confession or something).

You may think Important People like George Bush or Bill Clinton or President-elect (at time of writing) Obama, or A. Lincoln, or Alexander or Ghengis Khan or Hitler or Nimitz or FDR or Churchill are the kind of guys who make the world go `round. Or try to stop it, as the case may be.

You'd be dead wrong.

An interesting thing happened in the 19th century called the Industrial Revolution. After 20,000-some-odd years of digging in the dirt the planet suddenly went high-tech. Or at least higher-tech. The IPs were shocked, SHOCKED, to find they couldn't win a war (or do much else) without tech. And where did they get their tech?

From us autistic, socially-inept, outta-the-box-thinking, harmless-appearing nerds. Stephenson gets this right, oh-so-dead-on-right, in "Cryptonomicon".

I almost never buy hardbacks any more except in extraordinary circumstances. Fellow serious bookworms will know why immediately - space. If the total volume in one's abode can be expressed as X, and the volume taken up in said abode by hardback books is .99999X, it becomes obvious that...well, you get the picture. (Omigawd, an equation - means 10% fewer people will read this review). Sooner or later paperbacks start looking like the way to go.

When I saw the big Avon hardback edition in 1999 and took a quick look, it seemed like a possibility. But what iced the deal was the inside jacket picture of a young (maybe 10 y.o.?) NTS curled up on the couch reading the Epstein's "First Book of Codes and Ciphers", a book I still have on my own shelf. Now THIS was my kinda author!

Since then, I've read "Cryptonomicon" every few years and never failed to pull something new out of it. This time it was an even better appreciation of the very digressions many of the reviewers here have taken exception to. They are brilliant little jewels in their own right. To those who fizzed through the book the first time and missed them, or even skipped `em deliberately (arrrrgh!), I say, "Read it again and slow down. Smell the coffee!"

The pages leading up to and including Lawrence Waterhouse's Big Insight at the organ keyboard are among the most hilarious I've ever read. Could only have come straight from a true nerd's heart.

About the ending. Sometimes in real life, things don't get tied up with a then-everyone-lives-happily-ever-after ribbon, or a can-you-top-this bow. Sometimes the villain wins or the hero loses, or they both win, or they both lose. The codebreaker heroes of WWII got medals and citations they couldn't publicly acknowledge for over thirty years. Many of them worked their butts off on projects the results of which they didn't even see until such information began trickling out in the early 1970s.

Many of these ops would have seemed totally absurd from the point of view of the heavily-compartmented participants. Stephenson's genius is his presentation of clandestine activities from the POVs of Bobby Shaftoe, who knows nothing, and Waterhouse, who knows everything.

After the 900-page tour-de-force NTS rolls out, about the only other ending I can envision is what I call the "up-yers ending", something like this:

"The Earth encounters a random black hole and falls into it. All life is squished into oblivion (including the characters you've read about for the past week) and the world ceases to exist. Thank you for buying this book."

THAT would've ticked off the reviewers even more.

My background includes writing ICBM flight software and service as a U.S. Navy Intelligence officer. I've read 1000s of books of all types, had three of my own published. I've never given max stars to a book before in my life. This one gets max stars. Six out of five, in fact. Stephenson wrote a book about us and he got it right.

Nerds rule.

I started reading this book thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew. By the time I finished on the 1153rd page, I wanted another 1153 pages. Between the development of exciting/intelligent/dynamic/fun characters, the storylines, the overall plot, the twists, the action, the humor, Cryptonomicon is one of my top 3 favorite novels. Though it seems long, it's difficult book to put down once you get started.

Cryptonomicon has everything: WWII action from both sides, spying, code breaking, adventure, action, humor, treasure hunting, computer engineering, hacking, sex, intrigue, covert operations, espionage, and to top it all off a love story that spans two generations. When I pictured the characters in this novel, for some reason, I imagined the characters from Ocean's 11 for some reason.

The dual storylines between WWII and current day took some getting used to, but when all said and done, was the best way to tell this story.

My only gripe is that it concluded too quickly; I could have used another 20 pages or an epilogue, but suffice to say, I love this book, have read it twice, and have reccommended it to all my friends.

Now I am reccommending it to you.

I don't remember buying this book, but that is not uncommon for my large collection of books. Having read most of the books on my bookshelf, I decided to give this a shot, not knowing what to expect.

At first, the plot confused me. It likes to jump into flashbacks and to different times without telling you, and often is intentionally vague to force you to guess.

Then it gets really good. Between WW2 intrigue and modern day mundane chores (like 5 pages of the perfect bowl of Captain Crunch), this is literary exploration at its best. I have not laughed out loud so many times in one book since reading the entire Hitchhikers Guide series.

Brilliant.

AM I GOING TO READ A THOUSAND PAGES BY ANYONE BUT TOLSTOI? NO. BUT I AM WRONG. HAVE NOT EVEN FINISHED THIS AND CANNOT WAIT TO TELL YOU TO READ THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE NATURE OF HACKING AND COMPUTATION, IN WW2, IN EVIL, IN REAL SEXY FUN, IN THE WORLD AMERICA HAS CREATED, IN THE PHILIPPINES -- I HAVE NEVER READ ABOUT THE P. IN ANY OTHER NOVEL. SURE PARTS ARE BORING BUT DON'T SKIP. DO NOT MAKE BELIEVE YOU UNDERSTAND. REREAD AND YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING. SOMETIMES ITS NOT A NOVEL BUT A LONG AND VERY INTERESTING REPORT. SOMETIMES ITS A TEN PAGE SHAGGY DOG STORY. IT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN TV AND EVEN NETFLIX AND YOU KNOW WHAT -- ITS ABOUT THE WORLD WE ACTUALLY LIVE IN AND CANNOT LEARN ABOUT FROM JOURNALISM, YOUR PARENTS, MOST OF YOUR TEACHERS. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK WITHOUT EVER GOING OVER THE TOP -- EVEN WHEN HE IS METICULOUSLY DESCRIBING MASS MURDER. WHICH IS FAIRLY OFTEN. AND WHEN HE DESCRIBES THE INTERIOR OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO WANT TO COMMIT MASS MURDER BUT ARE PREVENTED FROM DOING IT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT EVIL -- HE IS EVEN BETTER. AND REMEMBER, WE LIVE IN A WORLD THAT WAS CREATED BY MASS MURDER AND ITS STILL ON THE WORLD'S AGENDA. IF N.S. IS A NERD, I HAVE A NEW FOUND RESPECT FOR THEM.

The story is amazing but I was disappointed with this edition's format. Very small pages make a very thick book which was more difficult to read than another version I've seen (blue with silver cover).

This book is full of the geeky stuff (there are even code snippets!), but it also has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The second time I read it, I was able to pick up a lot more of the humor.

Did you ever feel like someone listened to all your thoughts, figured out exactly what your interests are, then wrote novels specifically directed at you? I love everything that this guy writes. Partly because he writes well, but also partly because he thinks deeply on topics that interest me: modern currencies (which are basically confidence games), future implications of nanotechnology, the role of cryptology in the movement of money, how governments will be affected by the fact that geographical location is becoming less relevant, the complex and subtle differences between cultures and the evolution of manufacturing. Gotta go.... buy my next Neal Stephenson novel.

Alan Turing, Enigma, the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto and last but not least, the proper way to eat Cap'n Crunch. What more could you want?

That's just the side stories not the main plot.

This sprawling book was a page-turner and is properly deserving of its Cult status.

I really liked Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Then recently someone recommended this book by saying "It's like Snow Crash, with more ADHD."

I was sold, and Cryptonomicon exceeded my expectations. There are numerous digressions that are really funny, partly because you find yourself entertained the whole way. Like a stand-up comic, Neal Stephenson will suddenly veer off into a side-anecdote and then slams you back in a way that's fun all by itself.

The biggest complaint to this book is that the ending is oddly-standard compared to the rest of the book. Some authors seem to start with a great problem and a great solution, which creates a great ending. Intead, similar to Orson Scott-Card's books, it feels like Neal Stephenson starts with a great premise, fully enjoys developing the story, then thinks "ok, I think that's enough. Hmmm... What's a great way to end the book from here?"

*shrug* I still give it 5 stars. I'll always prefer a great story with contrived ending over a contrived story with a great ending.

Here's an example and litmus test for whether or not you should buy this book... and it's a slight spoiler, but only of a digression, so I think you'll forgive me...

At one point, the book digresses for a few pages into a character's ability to solve scientific problems as a function of his sex drive, complete with graphs as if right out of a math textbook! Now, if you would be annoyed by such a digression or the geek-factor of it then you should stay away.

However, if you are intrigued, amused, or especially both, then you are probably a geek like me, and you should buy it. Now.

This book was truly a great book to read. I loved reading it, although it did take me about a month and a half. It reminded me of a bible given the heft of the paperback edition, and i couldn't store it in my coat for travel. Beyond that it was a great story, great character developement and did a superb job keeping all 3-5 storylines in-tact.

Took a while to get into but soon couldn't put it down. Loved this book. Had some very memorable and humorous scenes.

Cryptonomicon is one of those novels that wouldn't be out of place on a bookshelf next to classic epic stories like the Odyssey or the Iliad. Its grand, sweeping plots encompassing two time periods coupled with its realistic yet slightly superheroic characters create a unique experience that many of today's so-called "epics" lack. The hero journeys of the follow-orders-at-all-costs Bobby Shaftoe, the scary-brilliant Lawrence Waterhouse, and the forward-thinking entrepreneurs Avi and Randy twist and weave across the ages with precision and guile. Along the way, these heroes encounter other larger-than-life characters -- a conflicted Japanese soldier/digger, a pontificating immortal, General MacArthur -- further fleshing out the already three-dimensional story. And interspersed throughout everything is gold, glorious gold. Truly epic!

Is it for everyone, though? No. The sheer size of the novel alone will present a daunting challenge to even the hardiest of readers. Throw into the mix heavy doses of (sometimes subtle) sarcasm and pages-long ramblings on subjects seemingly unrelated to any aspect of the story, and some readers may find themselves throwing the book across the room. If you don't care about why men grow beards, or the extraction of some obscenely impacted wisdom teeth, or why Athena was really the goddess of technology, you may find yourself with some dented walls. But if you can stomach the following: "The uppers were so deep in his skull that the roots were twined around the parts of his brain responsible for perceiving the color blue (on one side) and being able to suspend one's disbelief in bad movies (on the other) and between these teeth and actual air, light and saliva lay many strata of skin, meat, cartilage, major nerve-cables, brain-feeding arteries, bulging caches of lymph nodes, girders and trusses of bone, rich marrow that was working just fine thank you, a few glands whose function were unsettlingly poorly understood, and many of the other things that made Randy Randy, all of these definitely falling into the category of sleeping dogs," you'll be just fine.

Is Cryptonomicon perfect? Sadly, no. At times it feels as if the plot is getting away from Stephenson and he has to kick it back into place. Whole huge periods of time pass in narration, not action. An entire trek into the jungle to find a mysterious location is recounted by Randy in an email. And, of course, as has been expressed in other reviews here, the ending comes on way too quick. But fortunately these incidents are few and far between and do not cause great distractions from the already sprawling plot. Even the ending, upon reflection, feels appropriate in the context of the entire novel.

All in all, it takes a quirky personality to love Cryptonomicon. But if you're one of these unique individuals, be prepared for a wild ride.

I loved this book.
It seems like most reviewers who enjoy Cryptonomicon are involved heavily in some type of geeky activity, so this review is for the other people out there, people like me, who ask only "Does it work?", not, "How does it work?"
This book, with all of its in-depth explanations for questions I never thought to ask, was incredibly engaging. It has an enormous plotline that spans several decades, yet does eventually tie in together. There are lots of "Aha!" moments, as well as several where you ask "How did he DO that?"
I loved it so much that I bought it for my husband, a computer geek, and my dad, definitely not a computer geek, for their father's day gifts. It is looong, but unforgettable. The best way to read this book is in big stretches, so carve out some time, put your feet up, and get ready to lose yourself in a place where eating cereal has a mathematical precision that will amaze you.
And if you don't like it, you can always use it to prop open doors.

Neal Stephenson is a fantastic writer, and his skills truly shine in Cryptonomicon. Yes, it's a long book, but I suggest to all those who find fault with Stephenson's long-windedness that brevity is not somehow 'better' than verbosity, it's just different. Stephenson has carved his own niche in the continuum of writing-style, and, yes, it's in the Long-Winded-Land area of the spectrum. Is it a good style despite this? YES. Stephenson is incredibly deft with words, and the telling of his story is extremely effective. Cryptonomicon made me laugh, cry, and feel ill to my stomach at times (in a good way!). The dialogue is witty as usual for Stephenson, the plot is dense, multifarious, and fascinating, and the characters are well-developed. What more could you ask for? I recommend 'Cryptonomicon' to you, yes, YOU.

It has the same problems, as it's overlong trite cyberpunk. However, at least his writing's improved.

I LOVED this book. But, for potential readers, I have a VERY large caveat: Unless you have a love of mathematics and/or cryptanalysis you're going to miss out on much that made the book, for me, so great. In fact, judging from the one and two star reviews so prevalent here, you more than likely are going to hate it and end up torching it in your back yard in frustration and dancing around the ashes. By way of anecdote, I was talking to one of my neighbours who happens to have a degree in mechanical engineering while we were out walking our dogs about a certain aspect of the book that had me puzzled for a bit, and another neighbour stopped to join us. After listening for a time, she looked at me and asked, in a semi-sarcastic, baffled tone, "Are you reading an Engineering textbook for fun?" When I told her it was a novel, she became even more nonplussed. So, the point here is, you've been warned. I happen to be an English Literature major, but I was one of those kids in school who in, say, trigonometry class just looked at a math problem, knew the answer and handed in my tests in five minutes. The words, "SHOW WORK" are scorched into my memory of adolescence. On the other hand, if you've liked Stephenson's other works, or like picaresque literary jaunts in general, you will no doubt like this one as well. You'll just have to skip the parts I found most fascinating.

I can now say, though, that I understand why Stephenson fans took him to task for lack of verisimilitude in Snow Crash and the books which constitute The Baroque Cycle, both of which are a great deal of fun to read, but not terribly conducive to deep thinking. This book is so conducive, for a number of reasons, but the primary one, I should say, is that very few people realise just how WEIRD the branch of mathematics known as Statistics is. The simplest example I can think of is coin tossing: If you enter a (rather primitive) casino, toss a coin once and come up heads, your chance on the second toss of coming up heads again is 25%. It's not 50%. Furthermore, if you toss the coin and it comes up heads, then put the coin in your pocket and wait three days, three months, three years, however long, and take that same coin out of your pocket on the other side of the globe and flip it, your chances of coming up heads, after all this time, are still 25%, not 50%. I've gone out about the Math enough for this review, but the Math herein is very much concerned with probabilities like this one. It makes you start thinking, as the character Waterhouse does at one point, of the entire world as a giant probability wave. I can't tell you how many hours of sleep I lost tossing and turning with different numbers running through my head.

The characters in this book, as Stephenson puts it are "people too busy leading their lives to worry about extending their life expectancy." This makes for very intriguing, if involved, reading. But the writing can also approach the poetic at times. The sinking of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor is described thusly: "A military lyre of burnished steel that sings a thousand men to their resting places at the bottom of the harbor."

And the book is so terribly funny. The Englishman, Chatan's, description to Detachment 2702 of the importance of knowing the right way to, er, blow your head off if in danger of being caught by the enemy is priceless, "You would be astonished at how many otherwise competent chaps botch this apparently simple procedure."

Also, as noted by other reviewers, there are numerous in-jokes, my personal favourite being the Latin motto for the Societas Eruditorum: "Ignoti et quasi occulti." Which Enoch Root translates for Bob Shaftoe as, "Hidden and unknown-more or less," which is EXACTLY what it means! Notice the quotation marks surrounding more or less. The word "quasi," in Latin means "more or less" or "as it were" or "so to speak".

Alright, I've gone on long enough, perhaps too long, for an Amazon review. For those few who might be interested, I'll try to include a simple program I came up with for solving the Turing bicycle problem, which Stephen uses to illustrate how the Enigma machine works in the Comment section once this review is posted.

A wonderful book!

When you're in a bookstore the CRYPTONOMICON doesn't look all that intimidating. You've seen tons of books this thick by Tom Clancy and Robert Jordan--and probably read some or all of them with no problem.

But online here at Amazon you only see the page numbers--a whopping 1100 + !!!

Now for the important question: Is it worth your time turning all these pages?

LOCATIONS: A book this thick has to have some interesting locations, and it does: From pre-WWII Shanghai, the jungles of the Philippines, England, Italy, Sweden, Japan and Australia. I've never been to the Philippines but I felt like the author did a good job of describing it.

CHARACTERS: There are several main characters (all male) and the author takes turns telling each of their stories, which is a good way to break up any monotony. I wasn't able to really visualize what the characters looked like, but their individual actions and adventures more than make up for that. Some characters are of the nerdy suit-and-tie type and others are of the practical military-gear toting-type.

FUN: Is this a fun book to read? If you like humor and geeky "Gee Whiz" sort of information every now and then, this book has plenty of it. I especially found the part about Van Eck Phreaking really interesting--and something only the most paranoid of people would worry about. There is lots of history, most of it dealing with the Pacific Theater of WWII that I did not know before, since most games and books seem to dwell on the European side of that War.

OVERALL: If you want to read a book with some variety in location, rich in history and sub-plots that don't seem connected until much later, then I definitely recommend this book. It's a jungle of a book, but sometimes the jungle is where you find the rarest treasure.

Well, I gave what I thought to be a valiant effort at 260 pages, then had to say: no more. I'll admit it - I'm 53 years old, and while I have worked with computers for the past 30 years, to look at me you wouldn't think I was a computer geek, but perhaps I am. My beef is this: I grew up with the novels of Arthur Hailey (remember Airport?) where he spun out 8 or 10 storylines, then began to tie them together. Stephenson never ties them together. Perhaps you have to be 14 years old and have the attention span of a gnat to appreciate this (new?) writing style, but it's not for me.

This is a staggeringly clever book, extremely well written. Not an easy read, but so funny and insightful that one never minds the effort. Carry it everywhere and savor it slowly.

It was a struggle to finish this book. The book is an excellent 400 page novel crammed into a 900 page tome. I can't believe that the book wasn't heavily pruned by an editor prior to release.

Some parts of the book are indeed very entertaining and funny. At other times, it's like reading the phone book.

I couldn't finish this book, finding I had no desire to read any more after I got about halfway through. There are several concurrent storylines, none of which have anything to do with each other except in the most peripheral sense. The book spends so much time plodding along, I found I had a surge of excitement when he finally got to the announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At last, something was happening! Unfortunately, the next page began "Three months later,". I was incredibly disappointed after hearing the rave reviews this book got, and now I am completely mystified how it received them.

This is the first book I have ever failed to finish. This is out of thousands upon thousands of books, I read nearly continually. I've read long meandering epics etc. and loved them, but this one just did not have anything going for it.

I only made it to page 300 and the entire time I was wondering when a plot was going to be presented to the reader, a central story. A REASON to keep reading beyond just reading about these completely separated characters in two different time periods. I kept thinking that the story was going to get started after the author introduced the characters a bit more, but at page 300 I realized that this was all the book was going to be . . . character introduction and lots of it.

Maybe these characters all tie together in a wonderful and thought provoking way around page 1000 or so, but I'll never know because the author never gave me a reason to want to find out.

Have you ever hated yourself for finishing a book? For a long, long month, I resisted my own desire and my wife's urgings to drop the book. I should have listened. The book badly needs editing, the characters are shallow, and the author's (very) high opinion of himself stains the pages. There are two crypto-analytic themes to this book: World War II codebreaking and the struggles of a modern day cryptographic computer company to turn profitable. By page 500 (of the 910), I had no idea how they related; by page 700, I had an inkling but no longer cared. I only finished because I felt some undefined need to do so.
I would guess that by the time Stephenson wrote this book, he had enough critical and financial success that he was able to demand no restraints from his publisher. Consequently, the writing meanders and much of it is irrelevant. Stephenson dedicates three pages to description when three paragraphs (and sometimes only three sentences) will do. Worse yet, many of these wanderings are completely unrelated to the story, such as discussions of Captain Crunch and wisdom teeth. By page 300, the reader can see when these airy insignificances arise, and to continue, he or she must painfully wade through them.
Most of the characters in the book share the exact same personality: gruff and cynical. The exceptions are academics, who are portrayed as wimps with no grasp on reality, and East Asians, who all have a personality similar to the characters from Shogun. Otherwise, a World War II Marine shares the same personality as a modern day billionaire-investor who shares the same personality as a modern day entrepreneur. An example of the same-flavor feel of Stephenson's characters: One character (Enoch Root) was an Army Priest during World War II and dedicated himself to peaceful causes afterwards. By the time one of the modern characters encounters Root, in a jail cell in the Phillippines, Root (who must be at least in his mid-eighties) has been running a Church in the Phillippines for a number of years. Nevertheless, Root describes the goddess Athena as a virgin who was "leg-f***ked [] once but did not achieve penetration." This same character uses the word "dissed," just like any modern fifteen year old boy. Character development, needless to say, is non-existent in this book.
On the plus side, Stephenson has encyclopedic knowledge and an expansive vocabulary. Even this becomes a turn-off, however: Stephenson's writing reflects a man who thinks of himself as intellectually beyond the realm of mere mortals. Perhaps he is different in real life, but he comes across as the geek in high school who justified his social-ineptitude by the fact that he got great grades (especially in math!). That same geek who got great grades lost many arguments because he lacked intellectual and logical skills outside of "book learnin'."
Stephenson is like that: For example, he ticks off a long list of German and American technological advances during World War II, but then concludes that the Allies won because America stood for technological advance while Germany stood for mindless warfare. In another story line, Stephenson's modern day protagonists set out to create a data bank near the Phillippines that is protected by the most advanced cryptography in existence. These protagonists are some of the most brilliant computer code-writers and cryptographers in the world, and they are attempting to set up a company which hides information so well that even governments cannot access it. These same brilliant people are shocked to discover that criminals are keenly interested in the project. Again, Stephenson has incredible knowledge but weak logical skills.
Why give the book two stars instead of one? There are some redeeming aspects of the book: I liked the aspects of cryptography and analysis, a subject to which I have never paid much attention. Any book that I can learn from cannot be all bad.

This is the first book by Neal Stephenson I have ever read, or I should say I have ever attempted to read. I got to page 400 and had to stop. I probably should have put the book down after 100 pages, but after so many glowing reviews and endorsements, most notably from the New York Review of Books, I thought I would give it as much of a chance as I could. What a mistake.

Maybe I should even go back farther in time - I purchased the book thinking it would be an incredibly fast read, something in the same vein as a Dan Brown or Stephen King book. I was sadly disappointed to find that all of the people who said that this 1000-page monstrosity would be a quick read were terribly, terribly wrong (I also found at least two other people who thought the same thing and I wish I had listened to them when they told me to stop).

The book bounces back and forth between World War II and the present day, between grandparents and grandchildren in an all-over-the-map techno-thriller that is simply too dense to be readable. The pacing can only be described as plodding. I find Dickens a quicker read.

I think I may have started reading this with the wrong-mind set and maybe I should give it another go in a few years. But for all those looking for a nice-light read, stay away. And for those looking for something that makes you think or something where you can enjoy the texture of the language, stay away as well. Go out and pick up some Virginia Woolf or even some Dickens. It will be time much better spent.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of this book for Christmas. I'd never heard of the writer, but John recommended it strongly. I sat down expecting a romping science fiction book. What I got instead was an epic tale of two families from World War II through modern day (late 90's, some of the technology is a tiny bit dated) and all over the globe from England to Scandinavia to the Philippines, to Japan to the high seas in almost every hemisphere to a British protectorate country that Stephenson invented out of whole cloth that sounded so plausible I had to look it up on the Internet to make sure it didn't really exist.

It involves cryptology all the way from England against the Nazi's through very complex security for the Internet and, of all things, card games. The people are all amazing, diverse, human, complex and fully realized.

As many people have said, it ends rather abruptly, but the journey that leads up to that ending is so well worth traveling, I really don't care. This is a book that will go on my "read again and again" shelf, right next to Dalaney's Dahlgren.

People keep putting Neal Stephenson's books into "science fiction". Even if they take place today, or 60 years ago. Yes I loved it, but I think his books are increasingly miscategorized.

Or perhaps there's a hidden meaning to "science fiction".

I think it's this:

In order to make a book interesting you have to make something extreme or weird or new. In many books, authors resort to making one or more characters cruel or psychologically tortured, depressed or otherwise dysfunctional.

In "science fiction", the characters are generally intellient, clever, well balanced and otherwise normal.... it's just the world they inhabit that's gone arwy.

Something is only reviewed as "serious literature" if the characters are broken in some way, but if the *world* is wrong.... it's called "science fiction". Even if it takes place 40 years ago.

My biggest question before deciding to read this book was "Will I be one of the ones that like it or am I too old to be able to follow the sidelines and the more current buzz words". Since reading this story is such a commitment of time, I want to make sure you all know my specs: I'm over 50, not a techno-geek, but I do have experience in the world of computers and software, I majored in the sciences so I've had my share of mathematics and physics. I hated math and physics but I loved this story. I do have a great deal of interest in World War II and cryptography intrigues me. I especially love a conspiracy. This book has all of that. Usually I do not like a book that rambles around tangentially to the plot line, but I went into this book knowing that with 1100 pages (PB) there would be some of that. But in this book, there is a lot of it. Most of the book takes trips into the mind of the characters away from the plot. However, that is where the gems of this book are hidden.

There has been a lot made of the Cap'n Crunch detour. I have to tell you, I loved that section. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed the book immensely. The length was long; however, saying that is similar to Kramer on Seinfield, while in a sauna, saying that "it's like a sauna in here". Of course it's long, it's over 1000 pages. If you want a short book, read a graphic novel or comic book. Many didn't like the wordiness and the off plot meandering. If you want the instant gratification of finishing a book in two days, this is probably not the book for you. Although, it only took me about 2 weeks to finish, it was never boring and I never dreaded reading any of it.... Okay, I lied a little; I skipped over the bicycle sprocket explanation. But I read all of the rest. And for the most part, there are many sections that if you do not have an interest in them, skipping will not hurt you.

There were not many characters, so that part was easy to follow and the story line was interesting with more than a touch of fact. It was nicely put together and I've given it the highest ranking. I don't see where anyone could say that this book was missing character development. Any more development and the book would have been 2000 pages.

So what if it is almost 1000 pages long ?
This should not discourage you, au contraire: covering the last 50 years - from WWII to the Internet, from the Nazi Enigma machine to the modern code breaking techniques, from USA to Europe to Asia, using a language that is so Stehephenson-ique - funny, but still educating, entertaining while teaching us so much.
One of the best Neal has ever produced. I wish his other books would have the same quality, but unfortunately they do not.

I'm not a 5-star freak. Very little is truly perfect, but I'm going to destroy my credibility up front by saying this is my favorite book. Ever. What makes me insane about Neal Stephenson's books is that I can't say definitavely what determines "the crack facor." In the first chapter, with the introduction of Bobby Shaftoe clinging to the side of a truck and composing haiku, I was hooked, completely addicted as to a drug. Other Stephenson books have not grabbed me as intensly, namely, and sadly, the somewhat-prequel series The Baroque Cycle. Other of his books are nearly as addictive: Diamond Age and Zodiac to name two.

This book spans decades and follows two families that become intertwined between the events of WW2 and the present day. The depths of love, death, war, math, facial hair, jungle adventure, wisdom teeth, politics, communications and every sub-topic of geekology you can imagine are plummed. I read this book the first time on a back-packing trip to South America, and carried the 12 lb trade paperback for a month after I'd read it because I hadn't found anyone who evinced enough passion over my description to be entrusted with it's ownership. It ended up with 2 kiwis who I hope gave it a good home. I've re-read it many times since and, simply, can't recommend it enough if you want to be intelligently and absorbingly entertained.

I'm not a 5-star freak. Very little is truly perfect, but I'm going to destroy my credibility up front by saying this is my favorite book. Ever. What makes me insane about Neal Stephenson's books is that I can't say definitavely what determines "the crack facor." In the first chapter, with the introduction of Bobby Shaftoe clinging to the side of a truck and composing haiku, I was hooked, completely addicted as to a drug. Other Stephenson books have not grabbed me as intensly, namely, and sadly, the somewhat-prequel series The Baroque Cycle. Other of his books are nearly as addictive: Diamond Age and Zodiac to name two.

This book spans decades and follows two families that become intertwined between the events of WW2 and the present day. The depths of love, death, war, math, facial hair, jungle adventure, wisdom teeth, politics, communications and every sub-topic of geekology you can imagine are plummed. I read this book the first time on a back-packing trip to South America, and carried the 12 lb trade paperback for a month after I'd read it because I hadn't found anyone who evinced enough passion over my description to be entrusted with it's ownership. It ended up with 2 kiwis who I hope gave it a good home. I've re-read it many times since and, simply, can't recommend it enough if you want to be intelligently and absorbingly entertained.

This novel has two interwoven narratives: one that's set in 1944-1945, and one that's set in the present day. The World War Two narrative line is consistently funny, exciting, unpredictable and clever. The modern-day narrative is slow, pedestrian, occasionally confusing and contains several long, tedious digressions on topics like how to eat Cap'n Crunch cereal properly and how to steal information off your neighbor's computer monitor.

After a few hundred pages, it becomes clear why Stephenson's personal value system led him to write this sort of novel. The people that Stephenson clearly admires most are white, middle-class males with technical educations who are very gung-ho about America's Greatness. In the mid 1940s, these sorts of people were the saviors of civilization. In the 1990s they grew goatees, made their money selling garbage on the internet, and voted for George W. Bush because they were tired of all this gawdam political correctness. Thanks for that, guys!

When the two plots eventually come together, though, things pick up a bit, and I was left quite charmed by what a quick, entertaining read this colossus turned out to be. It also made me a bit sad though, 'cause it's nowhere near as original or groundbreaking as Stephenson's two earlier novels, SNOW CRASH or THE DIAMOND AGE. His desire to tell a good story has apparently been partly (though not wholly, thank god) superseded by middle-aged crankdom.

I threw in the towel around page 550 something. I just didn't have it in me to make it to the finish line. This guy apparently will _not_ use 2 words when he can use 7. It _is_ well plotted and the author has a keen eye for details and arcane and interesting facts but oh man, is this guy wordy. He is the anti-Hemingway.

I love cryptography, which is why I picked up this book. I also enjoy anything related to WWII. The author uses a fairly standard present time-past time storyline. He does a credible job of weaving together a number of characters and several storylines. He teases with a really interesting set of possibilities as to where his story might go involving Nazi gold, Nipponese gold, the Enigma machine, global communications and data and especially cryptography.

As I said, I got to around page 550 and just ran out of gas. He simply cannot get a grip on the narrative and after awhile, it just gets boring. He never delivers on the implied promise that things will start to pick up get going. Cut this book in half, I mean it; take away about 450 pages and it would be a terrific techno-historical thriller but I found it just too long.
If you are graduate of the Evelyn Wood School of speed reading, you'll probably love it.

It killed all my free time ! (in a good way)

The book is filled with real life Historical references and human icons, in a manner that reminded me a little bit of the way "Forest Gump" was written, so I'll say that the book is a cross of "Catch 22" with an average Tom Clancy, in the pase of a modern Hollywood blockbuster... a REALLY REALLY long one.

I loved it.

Enjoy.

This large, sprawling book was a pleasure to read for all 900+ pages. That said, some editing could have tightened the story, eliminated some needless scenes, and otherwise improved this reader's experience. However, there are numerous scenes that will forever be a part of my literary mosaic. When Bobby Shaftoe, one of several principle characters, is interviewed as a war hero by Ronald Reagan, I dare you not to audibly betray your amusement. Likewise, the death scene of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto is a classic.

While some other reviewers appear to be put off by some of the discussion of crypanalysis, I was not. The discussions were not overly taxing and, generally, were part of the appeal of the book, to mention nothing of their assistance in understanding key plot points. The technical discussions are emphatically not parts of the book that should have been edited down.

Of course, if you do not find both interesting and humorous a character's attempt to divide the property of the recently deceased via a mathematically sound, complex, and fair method (involving more complex math than was fully explained or than I could comprehend if it had been), then perhaps this is not your cup of tea. Similarly, if you found Catch-22's Yossarian boring and do not like Vonnegut's humor, then, again, this may not be the book for you. I found the book uproarously funny.

The biggest quibble I have with this book is the ending. Generally, the last hundred pages or so were not as engaging as the previous 800. The end itself was, in my opinion, quite weak and contained a few plot holes. Major questions remain unanswered and the resolution of those that are answered was less denouement than deflation. Stephenson seems to have hit a point where he had to wrap things up or write another several hundred pages. He wisely chose the former, but failed to create an ending as enjoyable and original as the rest of the book.

In all, there are extremely memorable characters, a number of highly originaly, funny, and entertaining scenes, and bucket loads of geeky facts and plot points. The book is a classic of the genre, if, indeed, it has not created or defined a new genre.

I highly recommend this book.

I don't quite get how people can pick up a book this size and then complain about the book's size ... isn't the book's, ah, SIZE a clue the book is going to be ... um, BIG? Sorry if that's going over a few people's heads, especially the computer scientists out there writing 1-star reviews.

My hat's off to the author - he nailed it. To make a 900+ page book entertaining all the way through takes mastery. Every storyline of this thing had me gripped, from the business to-and-fro with the Dentist to Shaftoe's war heroics - Shaftoe's one of the best characters I've yet encountered in fiction.

A book this big is generous from Stephenson. He could have written 3 Snow Crash-sized novels and maybe been paid 3 times. I'm glad he served up something like this to get lost in over a couple of weeks - every day I looked forward to picking this up and diving in.

Nerds unite! Here is your book. I'm serious as this book just oozes nerd goodies. This book has nerds from the 40's, nerds from the present time, German nerds, American nerds, British nerds, Techie nerds, graphs, charts, figures, formulas, manuals, gadgets, hacking, and yes even nerdvana. If you are nerd just buy the book you know you can't resist.

That being said, the book is very well written and moves at a very fast pace. I think I read this book in about three or four nights. This is a book I put off for awhile because of its length but if that is worrying you just buy the book since once you start it you will not be able to put it down.

Short but sweet: I've never been as envoious of an author since Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom's "Jesus Incindent, Lazarus Effect and Ascention Factor" trilogy, or Paul Preuss' and Arthur Clarke's "Venus Prime" series... Not the lyrical Tolkien type worship, mind, far from it!

Techno Sci-fi fans will be aware of Bill Gibson, Phil Dick, Isaac, you get the picture. If you thought "thought" itself was dead with the disapearence of Omni, I've got a faith-restorative for you : ) His name is Neil! And I forget when I last laughed so hard... I'm SO jealous!!! Its not fair that its all a propos, now more than ever...

I'm willing to allow for taste - I'm certain there will be many who dislike Stephenson's style. If you are not captivated by the end of the first few chapters, don't continue. Really. It's not for you.

If you want a "tightly edited", "page-turner", "techno-thriller", this is not the book you're looking for either. Go read Clancy again. Nothing wrong with that.

If you are anxious for a challenge that has nothing (much) to do with the vanity of the author (in contrast to Ulysses, for example), and/or an interest in (choose one or more) economics, WWII, mathematics, submarines, submarine cables or the underlying motivations of the denizens of a technological society, look no further.

This book is a GREAT pleasure. I dislike profanity and usually set aside books that use it. I love this book in spite of abundant profanity.

It's even more fun when one finds smart people using sly Cryptonomicon references in various prominent forums.

This is a sprawling, ramifying book. It is not a tight drive to a fixed destination, but an inclusive look at its topics. Think Melville, not Danielle Steele.

Finally - if you feel like the story cut off early (and some commentary seems to tend that way), you really didn't understand what was going on. I'm sorry you missed the big payoff. The author wasn't lazy - he was spot on.

there is a great, if challenging, book on codes and code breaking, Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. The Nazi's had the supposedly unbreakable code, generated by the Enigma machine. To make a long story short, The English broke the code using the newly created first computers. Alan Turing. The Allies could now, unbeknownst to the Germans and Japanese, decipher their messages. They discovered that many Japanese boats were in Truk, which is shaped like a horseshoe. They sent bombers way way south west and bombed the entrance to Truk and then leisurely sank the rest of the boats.

Truc Lagoon is now a scuba dive destination, boats, coral, skeletons and sake bottles inside the portholes.

There is this grimly comic story in the book where Japanese Adm. Yamamoto, arguably the best mind in the Japanese military, is flying in the south Pacific and he is thinking, how can the Americans always be in the right place all the time? Midway? Gaudalcanal? Then he suddenly realizes they have must have broken the Enigma code! Just then an American fighter comes out of the sun (Allies knew where Yamamoto's plane was expected to be, too), before Yamamoto can radio anyone and shoots his plane down. True story (the mental dialog is conjecture of course).

two stories (and plot lines) in one, which reflect each other.
yeah it's too long and needs and editor, but I still think it is

Highly recommended

It took me three tries to read this book. I stopped the first time because I really don't like books written in the present tense; it seems artificial, and does not add a sense of immediacy as is probably intended. But the story stayed with me. The second time I quit because I was put off by the author's jokey, smart-alecky attitude; I thought if he isn't serious about his characters, why should I care about them? But the story stayed with me. So I gave it one more chance. Making allowances for the previous objections, I found myself zipping through CRYPTONOMICON. It is indeed a worthy successor to GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. The WWII chapters are more interesting and more fun than the present-day parts. Now, my only real complaint is that the one half-way prominent female character undergoes a radical personality transplant during the course of the book. THAT could have been handled better. It need not be thought of as sci-fi at all. Read it as a historical novel.

I have read this book three times and purchased a new (used) copy each time. I don't currently have a copy because this book is too good not to give away. S. is a true wordsmith with a wonderful way of showing you the many intricacies (sp?) of english and causing you to think. A great thing for a book to do! It is the sort of book you wish would continue long after the final page due to your involvement with the characters. Truly engaging and a worthwhile read; once, twice or a half dozen times. For anyone who enjoys english, philosophy, laughing, mathematics, logic, or a well written book. I can't praise it enough!

A great, rambling novel. At times the rambling and wandering can lead to it seeming to become tedious, and sometimes the rambling is good.

Some discourse on computer systems, as three university friends are
working in different parts of the world during the war, all having
studied the same sort of cryptanalysis.

There is a lot more than that in this geeky tract, however.

This is a phenomenal book for science fiction lovers. It isn't an easy read for those who aren't very technologically savvy, but what do you expect given the subject. Many have complained about the length, but I found the story to be fine in length. The character development was well done and really made it easy to get involved. One complaint was the lack of major female characters. I guess I don't see this as a valid complaint against a book. I wouldn't make the same comment about something like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Its the story the author chose to write. In the WWII part of the book a major female character would have been out of place given the military aspect of the book and the time period. Its just the way things really work.

I believe this book does a great job of creating an engrossing and believable world that the reader can really enjoy. It left me wanting more. The ending does cut off, but not too badly. Not all ends were tied up, but that's not always bad. Leaving a little to the reader's imagination is always good, and you're never going to reach a good ending where all ends are tied up. Instead you'll end up with an ending like Harry Potter, where many people just complain about it.

Cryptonomicon should be read after the Baroque cycle. I think it makes Cryptonomicon even more enjoyable, however it does fall a bit short of the three books that comprise the Baroque Cycle.

I loved this book. It's NOT for the lazy, hurry-to-the-end reader, though. It's 918 pages or so, and that's a DENSE 918 pages of reading.

Don't be put-off by the "cyberpunk" tag that keeps getting connected to this book! The world within the pages is gigantic and full of detail, and really can't be pigeonholed.

Read the excerpt provided by Amazon - you'll see that Cryptonomicon is not the overblown stereotype that you might picture cyberpunk to be. The author's STYLE of writing is more pertinent than the genre. If you like Stephenson's writing in the excerpt, then chances are you'll enjoy the whole book.

On a related note, if you find that the Bletchley Park / WW2 cryptography storyline is your favorite, you might also enjoy a book called "Enigma" by Robert Harris...I hate to be trite, but don't cheat and watch the film of Enigma - book's better!
Enigma

Fact is, it is too damn long and takes forever to get to the point. When you are still wondering where the book is going after 500 pages, there is a problem.

It doesn't help that the WWII story is far more interesting than the "modern" story, especially when the modern story hasn't aged all that well. He should have focused on one or the other.

That being said, there is a lot of good stuff in there. I wish it all came together better than it did.

This book -- and Stephenson as an author, in general -- will remind you how much you love reading. If you feel like your life is too fast-paced to have time to sit with a good novel for a couple of hours a week, pick this sucker up and by the end of the month you'll be back into fiction. It's all over the place, and multiple times a day you'll be reminded of it and will want to go read it some more... I guess Stephenson is an addiction of sorts.

Enjoy!

...had it been about half of its actual 900+ page length. There's some fascinating stuff in here, and I'd like to see where it's going to end up. But I'm going to have to work for the payoff. There are many long self-indulgent digressions, some more entertaining than others, that just don't advance the plot.

Stephenson is a well read genius who educates and entertains hugely. You will be pulled in, will marvel, will resent any interruption, and, when finished, will wonder if you could ever find another experience like it.

+Had read little science fiction.
+Knew nothing about cryptography.
+Lost my math aptitude somewhere between trig & calculus.
+Was too late for baby booming and too early for on-line gaming.
+And my image of a "cyberpunk" was a bald-headed-by-choice, multiple tattooed, vampire-skinned, ninja-attituded computer super-genius who would laugh at my slow-brained, old-fashioned approach to the world.

But my father served in WWII ... and I was intrigued by code breaking. So when a friend recommended a book with a name so hard to pronounce I made her write it down and with pages of War & Peace like numbers, I decided it was worth a try. I'm still amazed I did.

And I am equally thankful as Cryptonomicon (a name that now rolls off my tongue) is in my top ten favorite books. I bought one copy as a gift, and gave my own cherished copy to a friend b/c I didn't want him to chance not getting around to buying it.

Though oft' overstated in reviews (yet before stated not at all by me) I find Cryptonomicon a modern piece of literature, essential especially for the male reader between the ages of 20 and 50. (No letters please - as indeed it was a woman who originally passed the book on to me). But past the testosterone -satisfying war story, the non-stop action thriller and the intellectual pleasure of learning about (and pretending to understand)the world of cyber technology, I found myself touched by this thought: had I been a contemporary of my teenage father during WWII ... or were my future son my contemporary today ... we would have been life-long friends.

It's not an easy read as the cyberpunk language is as difficult to follow as is understanding the genius of the "original" code makers and breakers of the 1930s & '40's. And the stores jump (pre-Da Vinci Code) back and forth between World War II and modern day. But I loved both trying to follow the math and yielding my respect to those who could. And as much as I hated leaving off one time period's story at chapter's end, one page later I would be reminded that it was THIS time period's tale I most enjoyed.

And so:

If you are a cyber punk, my apologies for past ignorance.

If you love a good adventure with intrigue, mystery, sex, math puzzles (understandable and not), codes (solvable and not), then you'll be trilled that this book lasts for as many pages as it does.

If you are a father or a son, this may touch you in ways that may surprise you.

And as for me, I no longer think in terms of generation gaps, for after reading Cryptonomicon I have decided that the only differences between Generations X or Y and with The Greatest Generation ... are smaller chips and a larger acceptance of respect for information.